Mold for casting reinforced structures



April 21, 1970 H. D. BECK MOLD FOR CASTING REINFORCED STRUCTURES Filed July 12. 1967 INVENTORI HAYWARD Z7. BECK.

United States Patent 3,507,474 MOLD FOR CASTING REINFORCED STRUCTURES Howard D. Beck, Tong Road, Carey, Ohio 43316 Filed July 12, 1967, Ser. No. 652,960 Int. Cl. B28b 23/02 US. Cl. 24997 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An open mold for concrete or other cast structures with embedded reinforcing rods. The mold includes a bottom and side walls with means for removably positioning rigid supports for a reinforcing rod. The supports extend across the mold between its top and bottom to support a reinforcing rod placed completely within the mold. The method of casting the reinforced structures includes the steps of placing the rigid supports in their support means across the mold, positioning the reinforcing rod within the mold upon the supports, filling the mold with concrete mix, removing the rigid supports and inverting the mold to remove the reinforced cast shape therefrom. To facilitate filling and emptying of the mold, a false bottom may be placed within the mold which is then removed with the cast shape prior to separation therefrom.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When casting a plurality of identically shaped concrete structures having internal reinforcing members cast therein, provision must be made for supporting the reinforcing member, such as iron or steel rods, within the interior of the mold so that, when the concrete mix or other casting material is placed therein, the reinforcing structure stays positioned within the interior of the mold. In the case of elongate cast structures, it is, of course, desirable to position the reinforcing rod approximately in the center of the structure so that it extends substantially along the axial length thereof.

In the case of open molds, one method of supporting V the rod has been inserted. Finally, an alternate method is tosuspend the rods themselves in contact with the sides of the casting mold, which method requires either the use of a complexly shaped rod or requires some sort of. removable mold so that the rods and casting mix can be removed therefrom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide a means for casting reinforced elongate structures of concrete or a like material which does not require the use of complexly shaped reinforcing rods, movable mold parts, or expensive rod supports, and which does not disturb or otherwise mark any exposed face of the casting. The invention includes an open casting mold having a bottom and upwardly extending, rigidly secured sides which form a complete closure, open at the top, which is shaped 'to form the desired cast structure. In a preferred embodiment, a pair of small apertures extend through the sides of the mold opposite one another. These apertures are adapted to receive a rigid support member, such as a 3,507,474 Patented Apr. 21, 1970 small metal rod, which extends across the mold generally normal to its axial length. Using a pair of such supporting members, which extend across the mold intermediate its upper and lower surfaces, a reinforcing rod of appropriate length may be placed completely within the mold upon the supporting members. After the concrete mix has been cast within the mold to fill the mold to its upper surface, the supporting members may be withdrawn from the apertures, in the side walls by sliding them axially outwardly, and the entire mold may be inverted to deposit the cast structure with its internally positioned reinforcing rod upon a supporting surface for subsequent setting or curing.

Another feature of the preferred embodiment of this invention is a false bottom which is substantially contiguous with the actual bottom of the mold and is placed within the mold prior to the introduction of the casting mix. The use of such a false bottom, in conjunction with the means for supporting the reinforcing rods previously described, facilitates the quick emptying of the mold. Using these two devices, one mold may be continuously used to form a number of cast structures with no necessity of replacing any mold parts and without the disadvantages attendant the previously described prior art methods of supporting reinforcing rods in a cast structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of the type of concrete structure which may be advantageously cast using the apparatus and method of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of a preferred embodiment of the casting mold of this invention, showing it in upright position ready to receive casting mix therein, showing the false bottom position therein and showing an internal reinforcing rod supported upon transversely extending support members;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view, taken along line 33 of FIG. 2, and showing a reinforcing rod positioned within the mold after concrete mix has been cast into the mold, and;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a cast structure with the reinforcing rod embedded therein being deposited upon a support surface by inverting the mold shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring briefly to FIG. 1, the reinforced concrete structure S to be formed by the preferred embodiment of the apparatus and method of this invention is a generally T-shaped block having an elongate body and a cross piece with the reinforcing rod, designated by reference numeral 10, extending axially through substantially the length of the cast structure S. Structures of this type can be used for many purposes, including the formation of self-cleaning livestock or poultry floors where a plurality of such structures are positioned parallel to one another with the cross member of the T positioned alternately at opposite ends to provide a ribbed floor with spaces between the bars for waste material, etc.

Referring to FIG. 2, the casting mold for the cast structure S shown in FIG. 1 includes a bottom plate 11 and continuous side walls 12-15 extending around the periphery of the bottom plate 11 to form a mold enclosure open at top. The upper surfaces of the side walls 12-15, which may determine the depth of the cast structure, are generally parallel to the bottom plate 11. The corners and edges of the side walls are permanently fastened together, as by welding, soldering, riveting or other means, as are the intersecting edges of the side Walls 12-15 and the edges of the bottom plate 11. It is understood, of course, that the configuration of the bottom plate 11 and side Walls 12-15 is determinative of the ultimate shape of the member cast therein, and that this particular configuration does not constitute a part of the invention.

Extending through apertures 16a, 16b, 17a and 17b in the side walls 12 and 13 of the casting mold are rigid support members 18 and 19. The size of the apertures 16a and 16b, and 17a and 17b, are such that the support members 18 and 19 may be slidably received therein without excessive friction or interference, but are not so large that the casting mix or other material would be forced out through excess space between the aperture side wall and the members 18 and 19. Each of the apertures in the pairs 16 or 17 is spaced opposite one another in the side walls 12 and 13 at preferably the same height from the bottom plate 11 and, in the preferred embodiment shown, are approximately equidistant between the bottom plate 11 and the upper edges of the side walls 12 and 13. Thus positioned, the reinforcing rod 10, resting upon the support members 18 and 19, is suspended Within the casting mold approximately halfway between the upper and lower surfaces defined by the bottom plate 11 and the upper edges of the side walls 12-15. The length of the reinforcing rod 10 is such that it fits entirely within the casting mold between the walls 14 and 15 and, as indicated in FIG. 3, may be slightly shorter than the entire length of the casting mold so that ends of the rod 10 will not be visible in the cast struc-- ture. It may be desirable, in some instances, to provide a small indentation or detent in the center of the support members 18 and 19 to prevent the reinforcing rod 10 from rolling or otherwise sliding from its central position within the casting mold. This modification is not shown in FIG. 2.

As has been previously explained, prior to depositing the concrete mix or other casting material within the mold, the support members 18 and 19 are positioned as shown in FIG. 2 across the main body of the mold by sliding them through their apertures 16a and 16b, and 17a and 17b. A reinforcing rod 10 is then placed upon these members 18 and 19, as shown, and the mold is now ready to receive concrete mix. After the concrete mix has filled the mold and has been tamped or has otherwise settled within the mold, the support members 18 and 19 are withdrawn from the mold by axially sliding them outwardly, as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2, to remove them from the mold. After this has been done, the reinforcing rod 10 is supported centrally within the concrete mix solely by the viscosity of the concrete mix. Because the diameter of the support members 18 and 19 is relatively small, and because they are removed by sliding them axially from the concrete mix, a very small or negligible impression is left in the side of the cast structure. In many cases, this side is not exposed to view and therefore this small impression is not objectionable.

As shown in FIG. 4, the mold is then inverted to deposit the cast structure S upon-a supporting surface, and the mold itself is removed by lifting it upwardly from the structure S. As previosuly stated, in order to facilitate removal of the mold from the cast structure S, as schematically shown in FIG. 4, the mold may be provided with a false bottom 20 which, as shown in FIG. 2, is generally coextensive with the bottom 11 of the mold and is positioned entirely within the mold and rests adjacent and parallel to the upper surface of the bottom 11. With the false bottom 20 in position, the concrete mix is cast within the mold and rests entirely upon the false bottom 20 so that there is no adhesion between the mix and the actual bottom 11 of the mold to interfere with removal of the mold from the cast structure S. As shown in FIG. 4, the false bottom 20 is removed from the mold along with the cast structure S and then is separately removed from the upper surface of the cast structure S.

To further facilitate emptying the mold as described above, the bottom 11 may be perforated with a series of holes or vents 21, as shown in FIG. 2, which prevent a partial vacuum from interfering with removal of the cast structure S from the mold. The combination of the false bottom 20 and vents 21 in the actual bottom 11 of the mold has been found to greatly facilitate quick and easy removal of the concrete mix from the mold.

Various modifications to the above described preferred apparatus and method of this invention may be made by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A mold construction for casting concrete structures having at least one internal reinforcing rod embedded entirely within said cast structure at a predetermined position between the upper and lower surfaces thereof, comprising, in combination, a bottom plate having an outline conforming to the desired shape of said casting structure and peripheral side walls extending around and upwardly from said bottom plate to form a casting mold for the desired shape with the upper edges of said side walls defining the upper surface thereof, at least two pairs of opposed apertures in said side walls, each of said pairs positioned a predetermined distance between said bottom plate and said side wall upper edge, at least two remov able elongate rod supports having a length longer than the distance between opposed apertures in each of said pairs of apertures and having a cross section adapted to be slidingly received by said apertures, and a false bottom plate generally coextensive with said mold bottom plate and positioned within said mold above said mold bottom plate whereby, when said elongate rod supports are placed through said opposed apertures, an internal reinforcing rod shorter than said mold will be supported within said mold at said predetermined distance between the said bottom plate and said mold wall upper edges and whereby, after said mold has been filled with concrete mix and said rod supports slidingly removed therefrom, said mold may be inverted to remove the cast structure and false bottom therefrom with said reinforcing rod embedded therein at said predetermined distance between the upper and lower surfaces of said cast structure.

2. The mold construction of claim 1 which further includes a plurality of pressure relief vents in said bottom plate.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,350,603 8/ 1920 Gerritson et a1 249-96 X 1,493,796 5/1924 Anderson.

1,549,951 8/1925 Aiken 249-96 X 3,182,948 5/1965 Lawrence 249-96 X 3,193,971 7/1965 Galloway 249-141 X I. SPENCER OVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner D. W. JONES, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 25-118; 249-136 

